Houston Astros, Meet Reggaeton... Not "Reg Action"

Lately the Houston Astros have been turning to music as an alternative way of getting people through the turnstiles of Minute Maid Park, since winning ballgames is pretty much a wash this year.

This includes Saturday's "Hispanic Heritage Celebration," featuring a post-game concert by reggaeton stars Chino y Nacho. Unfortunately, someone at Fox Sports Houston made like an Astros infielder and dropped the ball.

On a recent Astros telecast against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Fox's Patti Smith read the prepared promotional-event copy just like she does probably thousands of other times per season. Except this time the script inexplicably said "reg action" instead of reggaeton, and that's what went out over the air. Smith also pronounced Chino's name as "China."

Whoops. Deadspin was not amused, saying Smith sounded like "she just stumbled out of a Senior Citizens For Rick Perry campaign rally," particularly for making a cheap joke about nachos with announcers Bill Brown and Jim DeShaies. ("Hungry, guys?") In their defense, they probably were starving... for a win.

""She read what was on the script," Fox Sports spokesman Ramon Alvarez tells Rocks Off's sister blog Hair Balls. "She didn't mean any disrespect and if anyone was offended by the mispronunciation she apologizes."

The nacho joke was pretty tacky, but Rocks Off is sure Smith meant no offense. She may have just been dumbstruck by the fact that the team was actually leading the ballgame at the time. It was just another milestone in a season full of them, the Astros' on-field ineptitude spreading to their broadcast partners... in a weird way, it's kind of comforting, even.